Royal left with 'tears dripping off her chin' over heartbreaking comment

Not only is she one of the hardest-working royals, with more than 200 engagements a year, but the Duchess of Edinburgh has also made history by visiting some of the most dangerous places on Earth. On International Women’s Day in March 2019, Sophie boldly announced she would be taking a stand on sex crimes in war-torn regions, initially teaming up with actress Angelina Jolie through the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative.

To date, her mission has taken her to many troubled countries that no other royal has ever visited. Most recently, in October, Sophie travelled to Chad to meet refugees who had fled the devastating civil war in Sudan, which has killed at least 61,000 people in the past year. During the three-day visit, she heard the heartbreaking stories of women survivors, which she admitted left her feeling “quite wobbly”.

Visibly moved as she spoke to reporters, Sophie said, “People are having to exchange food and water for sex, for rape. That is violence that is being enacted through conflict. It is being used as a bargaining tool. These women have no option but to leave. And, even then, they’re lucky if some of them can get away, because some of the villages and towns that they come from, they can’t even leave their houses anymore. If they leave their houses, they get killed.” She added, “What they do to the children is… I can’t even use the words.”

Sophie previously became the first royal to visit Sudan in March 2020, when a ceasefire was thankfully agreed just weeks before her arrival. On that occasion, she said she had gone to “some very dark places” and heard stories that left “tears dripping off your chin”. In the city of Juba, she appealed for women to be allowed to help build a more peaceful future, urging the male population, “Listen to your women folk and support them to take their place at your side. This is not a takeover, this is not a competition, this is about peace, it is about unity, it is about what is fair and right for the benefit of all.”

Although Sophie is under no apparent obligation to visit such hostile environments, royal biographer Ingrid Seward believes she has an innate desire to tackle difficult causes. “She says, ‘Look, I don’t mind doing it. I quite want to go to these places.’ Also, there’s only a finite number of things the royals can do, and they each have to find their niche. They can’t cross over with each other. I remember Fergie saying to me years ago, ‘What am I going to do?’ They have to slip in where there’s a space. And I think that’s what Sophie has done so well. She’s doing a lot of the kind of trips Prince Philip would have done, too.”

Another landmark journey took place in April 2024, when Sophie became the first royal to enter Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly three years ago. She said she wanted to “show her solidarity” with those most severely affected by the war, and told guests at an evening reception, “Women and girls pay the highest price in terms of human costs.

Rape is used to demean, to degrade and to destroy.” While in Ukraine, she also delivered a personal message from King Charles to President Zelensky, and travelled to the town of Bucha, where she met displaced women and survivors of sexual violence and other crimes committed by Russian forces.

Sophie’s commitment to such emotive causes has seen comparisons made with the late Princess Diana. “They were both blonde and both beautiful, of course, but there’s also a parallel between the groundbreaking and often dangerous work that Diana did with landmines through the Halo Trust,” royal author Katie Nicholl says.

“Some of the work Sophie does is similar, particularly around raising awareness of vulnerable women in warzones and for victims of genocide and sexual violence. These are gritty topics and not necessarily the sort of thing we might associate with a royal. And yet Sophie is smashing stigmas by shining a spotlight on them in the same way Diana did.”

Katie believes other royal women like Queen Camilla and Princess Anne are doing their bit too, adding, “It’s wonderful to see these powerhouse women within the top echelons of the royal family, doing what they can to empower women, and to really be making a difference.”

In May 2023, Sophie claimed another royal first by visiting Baghdad in Iraq, where she addressed the issue of violence against women and attended events supporting access to education for girls. Other destinations where she has raised similar issues include Kosovo, Lebanon and Sierra Leone.

As the first royal to visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo in October 2022, Sophie met members of a community project helping survivors overcome trauma, as well as representatives of an organisation providing legal support to victims seeking justice.

She also visited the Pole Pole Foundation, a finalist in Prince William’s Earthshot Prize initiative in 2021. As well as learning about its conservation work, there was a special moment when she met Pole Pole’s founder, John Kahekwa Munihuzi (Papa John), who bestowed on her a Congolese name, Umoja Mama Louise. It is a tradition in the country to call people “mama” or “papa”, followed by the name of their eldest child. Umoja means unity in Swahili, and Sophie and Edward’s eldest child is Lady Louise.

Closer to home, Sophie is patron to more than 70 charities and organisations, and each year she visits many of them, as well as schools, hospitals, military bases and community groups. Much of her UK work concentrates on supporting women and championing gender equality, as well as focusing on taboo subjects such as menstrual health and menopause.

In fact, she was the first royal to openly discuss her own experience of hot flushes, memory loss and brain fog. In 2021 she spoke candidly about losing her train of thought on royal engagements and feeling like somebody had “taken her brain out”.

As patron of the charity Wellbeing of Women, Sophie has called for franker conversations around menopause, saying, “We should be celebrating the fact we don’t have to have periods anymore. It should be a liberation, but it feels like a shackle. It’s described as something negative.” She has also said, “Women having to leave the workplace because of the menopause is tragic. We are fabulous in our forties, and we are even more fabulous in our fifties, sixties and seventies, and we need to celebrate that and keep opportunities going for women.”

Though former generations of royals might have run a mile to avoid such discussions, Ingrid believes Sophie is the ideal person to lead them. “She’s had her own medical problems and nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy, so it makes sense she has become a spokeswoman for women’s issues. It’s unusual for the royal family to be so open, but she obviously feels very passionately about such things.”